Isaiah 51:1-6 (NRSV)
Read Isaiah 51:1-6 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 51Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the Lord. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. Verse 2Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many. Verse 3For the Lord will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song.
Verse 4Listen to me, my people, and give heed to me, my nation; for a teaching will go out from me, and my justice for a light to the peoples. Verse 5I will bring near my deliverance swiftly, my salvation has gone out and my arms will rule the peoples; the coastlands wait for me, and for my arm they hope. Verse 6Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who live on it will die like gnats; but my salvation will be forever, and my deliverance will never be ended.
Devotion
Granite is beautiful, authentic, natural, and -- like snowflakes and baby footprints -- no two slabs are identical. It is cut from a mountain that God made -- which puts it into a class unto itself, really, in the universe of countertop options.
You who seek the Lord, says the writer of Isaiah, remember where you come from: Who’s your Daddy? Who’s your Mama? The rock, the quarry -- Abraham and Sarah, the ones from whom God cut a whole galaxy of diamond-bright descendants. We are chips off the old block -- blessed to be a blessing for the world.
The promises that God made to those flinty ancestors of ours, God extends to us. God will water our parched places, bringing new life. God will apprentice us in sculpting a world of peace with justice. Fashions come and go, our lives are short, even the earth won’t last forever. But God’s rock-solid salvation will never wear out.
Prayer
We lift up our eyes to the Rock of our salvation. Praise be!